SUKHUMI. July 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian peacekeepers have detained a Georgian Defense Ministry convoy in a safety area in Georgia's Tsalendzhikhi district.
Two armored prime movers, an UAZ vehicle and a Niva car were stopped at 10:34 p.m. Moscow time (1934 GMT) on Monday, near Russian peacekeepers' checkpoint outside the village of Khudoni. The convoy was carrying at least ten armed military policemen and Defense Ministry representatives, officials with the combined peacekeeping force command in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict zone told Interfax-Military News Agency on Tuesday.
Representatives of the UN mission to the Zugdidi sector arrived at the scene and documented the convoy's detention, a command representative said.
The movement of armored vehicles in a safety area is "a flagrant violation" of the May 1994 Moscow agreement, signed by Georgia, Abkhazia and Russia with UN mediation.
The command of the peacekeeping force stopped the two armored prime movers for an investigation in the presence of UN military observers and Georgian officials, he said.
In a preliminary investigation Georgian Defense Ministry representatives failed to provide any explanation of their presence in the safety area, the command said.